AI Startups With No Revenue Are Using This Tactic To Supersize Their Valuations

Forbes Daily Briefing · Jul 7, 2026 · 6m

Earlier this year, David Silver, the renowned former scientist at Google DeepMind, dialed into a Zoom meeting with a venture capital firm to pitch his new startup Ineffable Intelligence. Silver, who spent over a decade at Google, believed the current approach to training AI models wouldn’t work long term. He spoke for 30 minutes about creating digital environments where AI systems could learn on their own, without any human data or input. Eventually, he told the investors on the call, AI will get so good that it will learn to use things in the physical world. “We can put AI in our toasters,”…